How Much Money Would Make You a Success?

It turns out that you can put a price on success and it may not be as far away as you would imagine. That’s because in a recent survey, three-quarters of workers said they did not need to have a six-figure salary to feel successful.

In fact, the magic number for workers was a salary between $50,000 and $70,000. Just fewer than 30 percent of workers said that they would feel successful if they were earning a salary in that range while 23 percent of workers said that a salary less than $50,000 would make them successful. Only one in 10 workers said that $150,000 a year would make them a success.

There were, however, some caveats to those numbers. Men were more likely than women to say that a six figure salary would make them successful. Additionally, different industries had differing opinions on what number equaled success. Financial services, sales and information technology workers were the most likely to say that a salary of more than $100,000 made them successful. On the other hand, retailer, manufacturing and hospitality workers were most likely to say salaries less than $50,000 made them successful.

"While compensation is definitely important, workers don't necessarily equate success with hefty incomes," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, which conducted the research. "Often, you'll see intangibles such as the ability to make a difference, a sense of accomplishment and work-life balance eclipses the size of a paycheck in what matters most to workers."

To that end, nearly a quarter of workers said they were happy with their current salary. An additional 45 percent of workers said that they were close to their desired salary and 32 percent said they were nowhere near their desired salary. It’s a good thing that many workers are happy with their salaries, because it appears that raises may not be coming anytime soon. According to the research, half of all workers said they haven't received a raise since 2010 while one-quarter of workers said they hadn’t received a raise since 2008.

The information in this research was based on responses from 5,772 workers. The research was conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.